Looking like plants

While Junior and I had a pleasurable one hundred and seventy kilometres yesterday, avoiding the heavy showers that traversed the Auckland Isthmus and enjoying a sterling tailwind for tens of kilometres, the Hudson Gavin Martin Auckland 1000 was being raced out at Karaka in some very mixed conditions.
The Crocodile decided he should done his racing spurs and raced B grade there. The following is his report from the battlefield:-

"Auckland 1000 starting at Karaka Hall following 2007 national road race course. First surprise for me was that B grade distance was 78km not 104 as I had thought. Three times around the twenty six kilometre lap.

There were forty odd starters in B grade - mostly from Counties-Manukau Cycling club, a few from North shore and some out of towners. Apparently there were a few B grade burglers from A grade as well.

Decision 1: which bike to use? Decided to use old one because not used to new setup and because of conditions. Great decision as the conditions were terrible and there was at least one very dicey moment.

Decision 2: which wheels to use? Bonty 65mm carbon tubulars or Dura Ace 23mm carbon clinchers. Decided to use 23mm because of wind. Great decision again as the wind was quite strong & gusty on the more exposed sections of road and the torrential rain in parts.

I have just had my old Polar HR monitor refurbished and discovered that I hadn't set it up - so I don't have any speed stats - plus I didn't start it unitl 10-15min into the race. I'm guessing that we would have averaged around thirty six km/hr in those conditions.

The race started fairly speedily with a few break away groups getting away for a while. About thirty minutes into the race there was a forty-five minute period where the acid was on. For most of this period I was just sitting pretty-much in towards the end of the bunch - until towards the end of the period where I was on the front helping to chase down some groups.

The last lap and a half, I felt much more relaxed and found myself off the front a few times when leading the bunch up some gradual inclines - although didn't take these much further as I thought it would just waste my energy. Also bridged over to a couple of small breakaway groups at times, but they were chased down by the bunch. I think the pack was just strategically saving their energy towards the end.

Torrential rain hit the race on the second and third laps, so much so that I thought they may have even called it off for safety reasons - I could not see very well at times.

With three km to go, I was feeling great & placed third, going down a hill into a sweeping/tight left hander when the two bikes just in front of my wheel spilled onto the road way. Thought I was a goner for sure and took evasive action by straightening up and headed straight down a grassy/rocky drainage ditch below the roadway. I managed to stay on and slowly ride ten metres on the grass (in a very inappropriate gear) back onto the road - but the rest of the bunch had time to get around the other guys & were up the road. I managed to eventually ride up past the commissars car and onto the back of the bunch - with a sizeable oxygen debt - only to discover that the final sprint was on and I finished towards the end of the bunch.

Anyway, I was quite happy to stay on my bike given the conditions & spills, plus it was quite a good speed workout for me."

Struth!